MONROE COUNTY HISTORIC PHOTO ALBUM
Commerce
Lumber and argiculture in
the summer, ice in the winter, tourists year-round to enjoy
the beauty — from natural resources grew Monroe County’s
first industries.
Sawmills turned timber into lumber. Bark suitable for
tanning hides prompted tannery construction in Barrett
Township, Stroudsburg and other sites. Grist mills ground
agricultural crops.
Bricks were made from Kunkletown to East Stroudsburg.
Evergreens became Christmas trees and holiday decorations,
while elsewhere on the mountain, huckleberries, chestnuts,
hickory nuts, and maple syrup were harvested. Quarrying
operations yielded flagstone, building stone, slate and
sand. Ice houses on Saylor’s Lake, Trout Lake, Mountain
Spring Lake, Lake Naomi, Stillwater Lake, Pocono Lake and
lakes at Tobyhanna thrived until electricity made the need
to refrigerate with ice obsolete. Water from Ross Commons
Springs, long appreciated for its curative properties, was
being bottled by 1888 for sale throughout the East.
With the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing began in
earnest in the late 1900s, and Monroe County companies put
the area’s healthy wood supply to use in making
clothespins, shoe pegs, window sashes, brooms, matches,
barrel hoops, baskets, pulp and paper, paino stools and
other needs. Waste leather scraps from tanning were
combined with tanite to make solid emery wheels.
Mills and factories prompted development of other
businesses to repair and service their iron tools and
machinery. As the population grew, so did the need for
retail shops and shopping districts to supply goods ranging
from foods to clothing to gift items for tourists. Shopping
districts thrived in Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg and
other areas with large varieties to offer consumers.
Retailing innovations included the chain store, and in 1911
Stroudsburg became the site of the first of J.J. Newberry’s
nationwide chain of “5 and 10 cent stores.”